High School Notebook: Notes from the Convention

The U.S. Lacrosse Convention is a solid place to catch up with some news and discussion on what's happening in the lacrosse world, especially at the high school level. Here's a few news and notes from my day.

NILCA

You may remember this press release that went out in early December about the formation of the National Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association. As the press release stated “The NILCA was created to support the needs of the high school coaches around the country, to facilitate the national All-America program, to represent the coaches with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHSA) and monitor the integrity of the game. Its membership will be comprised of individual high school coaches.”

Today I chatted with Ren Pettinelli, th President of the fledgling NILCA, who is currently working on setting up the perimeters of the new group. I'm working on a more thorough story for the magazine but wanted to pass on a few details Pettinelli shared with me:

The group is still in the early formation stage. They held an executive meeting (the execs you can find on the press release) Friday, and will host an sorta “open house” meeting Saturday afternoon in Baltimore.

First moves will be to actually establish the group's basic infrastructure and scope, set up membership accessibility and establish an insurance program.

Since it's early in the formation process there are no potential membership numbers to report, though Pettinelli says they he's received a ton of encouragement and support through emails and phone calls.

The All-American process was a major sticking point between the high school coaches and U.S. Lacrosse. No news that I can report on that front yet from the NILCA end, and I'm waiting to talk to U.S. Lacrosse officials after the convention (with the organization focused on the convention, will be more fair to chat post- this weekend with full focus), but that's a story we'll continue to follow. Again, we'll have a more thorough story on this in the next issue of Inside Lacrosse.

NFHS 2011

Some notes for high school coaches heading into the season. Sat in on a meeting with the National Federation of State High School Association's lacrosse rules committee, as they went over rule changes and points of emphasis for 2011. NFHS governs most of the high school lacrosse scene, except for a few conferences who follow the NCAA rules book (Baltimore's MIAA is one of them.) Of note:

Rules on hits to the head, secondary hits to the head and spearing will all be major points of emphasis in 2011 as the sport looks to curtail concussions. The NFHS established more stringent penalties for these hits, including 1-2-3 non-releasable penalties, and intentional spearing will result in an ejection, according to the presentation.

If a player is woozy, glassy-eyed or appears to be otherwise hurt but still walking, the ref can escort him to the sideline and ask that a medical official look at him before he can return to the game. A lot of liabilities issues, specifically concerning the roles of officials, were covered with this rule. A referee can not say “concussion” when concerning a player's condition, as that is a diagnosis that must be left to the pertinent medical official, as determined by the local state authority, to make. If that medical official determines the player can go back into the game, he can go, otherwise he must sit out the rest of the contest. Lot of questions on this one from the sitting panel. To help understand this new rule better, U.S. Lacrosse held a subsequent concussions meeting that I did not have time to attend.

Another interesting point of emphasis; refs this year are being asked to keep stringent five-second restart rules, with the goal of speeding up the game. According to the NFHS, as much as 30 minutes can be added to a overall game time because refs don't keep stringent restart rules. If a team isn't fully prepared to restart with possession, a referee can call a turnover. Trying to imagine that call in an important moment and a high school coach not going ballistic, but we'll find out.

Also, if you have a giant logo in the middle of your new shiny turf field, refs will need to make sure there is a line of some sort there in order to properly administer face-offs. Line doesn't have to be drawn in perminent ink, but it does have to be visible.

Recruiting Panel

Finally, sat in on a recruiting season with several veteran high school coaches, including former Princeton assistant and current Malvern Prep (Pa.) head coach Dave Metzbower, Haverford (Pa.) coach John Nostrant, Brewster Academy (Me.) coach Bill Lee, and Tufts (DIII) head coach Mike Daly.

The panel established a pretty familiar refrain; be prepared earlier now since the process is starting earlier, have appropriate expectations for your kid's level of skill and ambitions (if you want to pledge a frat and run for student council, maybe Division I isn't for you) and be proactive.

Nostrant put it succinctly: Recruiting is "grades, ability and fit.”

Other notes from the panel:

Metzbower said that while at Princeton he would identify potential talent as early as 8th grade via the team camp, and keep track of those players through high school.

There's a thought of keeping high school teams together in the summertime for cohesion, but a couple coaches on the panel pointed out that it can be important for your younger/bench players to play on different teams from starters so they'll get more field minutes, and that it's good for players to also hear another voice concerning lacrosse outside of your voice. Bill Lee also mentioned that he felt “two tournaments are enough” for his kids.

Video, especially Youtube clips were recommended, though Metzbower emphasized that almost all DI coaches need to see recruits in person before they make a recruiting decision.

Metzbower also shared a sobering number. Of the estimated 6,000 potential recruits who graduate in a senior class, only 620 or so will play Division I. And, as a partial scholarship sport, many of those 620 players are receiving just a morsel of financial aide.